Vocabulary development is important for a kindergartener's intellectual development. When a child has a good vocabulary, all areas of communication — listening, speaking, reading and writing — improve. Vocabulary development is related to a student’s:
- School achievement
- Ability to think and learn about the world
- Access to new information
Kindergarten teachers are always on the lookout for activities that help children increase their vocabulary. The best way is to read to your children. However, kindergarteners are often restless and excitable, using different activities in learning is a great way to build vocabulary.
Here we share some activities that teachers conduct in blended learning for kindergarten to build vocabulary:
- Choose a theme: Teachers must remember that words do not live in isolation but work together. Even simple activities can help students to connect with everyday words and how they can be used. You can choose a theme ---- it could be fruits, vegetables, zoo or clothes. Ask students to name one item each and write on them on the board. Each word can only be said once. While playing this game, introduce some interesting and less common words. This will help enrich children’s vocabulary.
- What am I?: It’s an excellent game for learning new words. The class can be divided into two teams. One team has to guess the object that the other team is describing. It will expand students’ vocabulary as they deliberately have to use adjectives and verbs to describe the object. For kindergarteners, the clues can be simple. With older students, the description can be more cryptic.
- Odd one out: You can prepare a list of words in a particular category. Ask the child to pick out the word that doesn’t fit. For kindergartners, teachers can prepare a list of 4 or 5 words, all belonging to the category, except one word. Students will be asked to pick one that should not belong to that category.
- Show and tell: This is a great way to build students’ vocabulary as well as improve their sentence construction. Students are invited to bring their favourite object from home to show their friends. If it's an online class, they can bring the object on camera to show. It could be a toy, a book, a game or photos of a holiday. The students speak about their favourite object and at the end invite other students to ask questions.
- Weave a story: Reading stories and making ones are great ways to build vocabulary, creativity and imagination. For kindergartners, use a story that they are familiar with. Ask students to take turns to “tell” the story in their own words. Ask if they want to change any part of the story and if yes what would that be. Students can imagine and explain how different they would want that story to be.
Introduce progressive teaching methods in your school with Chrysalis Thinkroom programme
With Chrysalis’ ThinkRoom programme, teachers will never run out of ideas for blended learning for kindergarten. Each lesson is designed to encourage kids to think and discuss the importance of the lesson. Not only do the children get to develop vocabulary, but these activities are also designed to increase the students’ curiosity about the lesson. Unlike regular books, our books are colourful and interactive. They encourage us to think logically, creatively, and critically. To know more about the ThinkRoom Programme, schedule an appointment.
